FAQ

After the initial consultation, our lawyers will evaluate your claim. If we cannot take on your claim, you will receive a decline letter explaining why. If we can assist, we will ask you to complete forms and provide us with copies of relevant materials. For medical negligence claims, we will consult with medical experts after our initial investigation and review of medical records to determine if the case can be pursued. We will then prepare the case for a claim to be filed.

Lyons and Lyons offers free consultations and works on a contingency fee basis. If we are not successful in obtaining a favorable monetary outcome, you do not owe us a fee or for our expenditures.

In Texas, a person who has experienced medical malpractice generally has two years from the date of the incident to bring the claim to court. It is advisable to seek the advice of an attorney as soon as possible to preserve your claim.

Please provide the date of negligence, who was negligent, what they did wrong, and what injuries occurred. With this information, Lyons and Lyons can help determine if your case is entitled to compensation.

It is often better for the patient to attempt to get their own medical records first. A review of the medical records is essential to our evaluation of your case.

Medical malpractice occurs when a health care professional or provider neglects to provide appropriate treatment, omits to take an appropriate action, or gives substandard treatment that causes harm, injury, or death to a patient. Lyons and Lyons handles a wide range of medical malpractice claims:

• Birth injuries: We seek compensation for parents whose infants suffer fetal distress, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, hypoxia, and other birth injuries.
• Surgical errors: Our firm works to hold surgeons accountable for anesthesia errors, nerve damage, and wrong-site surgery mistakes, among other forms of surgical malpractice.
• Medication mistakes: If you were given the wrong drug, prescribed the wrong dosage, or harmed by other pharmaceutical errors, we will seek the full compensation you deserve.
• Failure to diagnose: When doctors fail to diagnose serious conditions such as cancer or heart disease, that failure can be life-threatening.

Attorneys may turn down medical malpractice cases for several reasons:

• Cost: Medical malpractice cases are expensive to pursue. They require expert witness testimony, medical records, and other resources that can make the case costly. And medical malpractice award caps may severely limit the potential recovery. If the potential award is small compared to these likely costs, an attorney may turn down the case.
• Severity of Injury: The severity of the injury caused by the malpractice is often an important consideration for attorneys. A serious injury with long-term consequences is more likely to make a case viable than will a temporary injury.
• Expert Support: Medical malpractice cases require expert medical testimony to show that negligence occurred. If an attorney cannot find a credible expert to support the claim, or if a trusted expert disagrees that there was malpractice, an attorney will turn down the case.
• Conflict of Interest: If an attorney has a conflict of interest in a medical malpractice case, it means that their ability to represent you impartially may be compromised due to competing interests or obligations, and the attorney may have to decline the case.
• Statute of Limitation: In Texas, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases is generally two years from the date of the incident. If the statute of limitations has run, an attorney might decline the case because it’s no longer legally possible to file a claim.

Birth injuries can occur during labor and delivery and may result from various complications or mistakes. Here are some of the most common types of birth injuries:

• Asphyxia / Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE): Oxygen deprivation severe enough and/or lengthy enough to cause brain injury. This can result from various issues during delivery, including placental insufficiency, umbilical cord complication, or overuse of labor-stimulating agents such as Pitocin.
• Cerebral Palsy: Movement and muscle tone disorders from brain injury during or shortly after birth.
• Intracranial Hemorrhage: Brain bleeding, possibly from trauma or preterm birth.
• Infections: Conditions acquired during delivery that can affect the baby.
• Use of Forceps or Vacuum Extraction: Assisted vaginal delivery, also called operative vaginal delivery, can result in trauma to the head or body of the baby.
• Fractures: Broken bones, like a clavicle, from delivery complications.
• Caput Succedaneum: Swelling of the baby’s head due to delivery pressure.
• Cephalohematoma: Bleeding between the skull and membrane, often from forceps or vacuum use.
• Hematoma: Blood collection outside blood vessels caused by trauma.
• Jaundice: Yellowing of the skin and eyes due to high bilirubin levels.
• Brachial Plexus Injury: Nerve damage affecting arm movement, often due to shoulder dystocia.

These birth injuries can vary in severity and impact, and their management typically involves medical intervention and follow-up care. If you suspect a birth injury was caused by medical negligence, consulting with a medical malpractice attorney can help you understand your options.

Medical product liability refers to the legal responsibility of manufacturers, distributors, and sellers for injuries or damages caused by defective or unsafe medical products. This includes medical devices, drugs, and other healthcare-related products. The goal is to protect patients and ensure they receive safe and effective medical treatments.

The party or parties that can be held liable – meaning legally and financially responsible – for a harmful defective product depends on the circumstances, including the nature of the defect. Responsible parties may include:

• Designer or engineer: the individual or company in charge of designing the product.
• Manufacturer: the company that manufactured or produced the product.
• Distributor: the company or companies responsible for distributing the product.
• Retailer: companies in the supply chain that sold the product to consumers.
• Parts manufacturer: the creator of a specific part, if that part is defective.
• Testing company: the laboratory that passed a defective product through safety tests.
• Marketer: the company that advertised the product to the public.
• Installer: the person or party that assembled or installed the product.

Defective medical devices can have serious implications for patient health, and manufacturers may be held liable for injuries caused by such devices. If you suspect a medical device is defective and has caused harm, consulting with a legal professional can help you understand your rights and options for seeking compensation.

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question under Texas law. The statute of limitations in medical malpractice cases generally runs two years from the date of the incident. Even in a case involving injury to a minor child, this statute of limitations is applicable to the medical expenses up to the child’s age of 18, because the Texas Supreme Court has reasoned that those expenses are the responsibility of the parents, not the child. In addition, Texas has imposed a statute of repose, stating that a medical malpractice claim must be filed in no less than 10 years from the date of the incident. However, Texas Courts have held that in cases where the child was younger than 12, a parent or guardian has until the child reaches age 14 to file a lawsuit on behalf of the child. Since these laws are complicated, and since such deadlines are fact dependent, it is best to consult a medical malpractice specialist as soon as you suspect your child has been injured as a result of medical malpractice.

In Texas, there are specific limits on the amount of compensation that can be recovered in a medical malpractice claim.

Texas law caps non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, and physical impairment, in medical malpractice cases at $250,000 per healthcare provider. When both a physician and a facility is involved the total limit is $500,000 (in very rare instances $750,000) for all healthcare providers combined.

In cases where the patient survives, there is no cap on economic damages, which includes medical expenses and lost wages. You can recover the full amount of documented economic losses.

In a medical malpractice case involving a wrongful death, there is a total cap on all damages that is indexed to the U.S Consumer Price Index, so that it is adjusted monthly. Currently, the wrongful death cap is over $2 million.

In a medical malpractice case, if you successfully prove your claim, you may be compensated for several types of injuries, also known as damages. These might include:

• Economic Damages: Medical expenses (past and future), lost wages and lost earning capacity, and other financial losses.
• Non-Economic Damages: Pain and suffering, emotional distress, physical impairment, and disfigurement; and, in wrongful death cases, the loss of love, advice, companionship, comfort, solace, and support.

The IRS does not generally tax award settlements for medical malpractice cases. However, if the settlement amount includes lost wages, emotional distress unrelated to physical injury, or any interest earned on the settlement then taxes may be due for that portion of the settlement. It's always a good idea to consult a tax professional when preparing tax returns following a settlement, as the specifics of the settlement and IRS rules at that time can affect the tax outcome.

In Texas, you typically must pay medical bills from your medical malpractice settlement if they are related to the injury. Liens filed by health care providers and reimbursements owed to health care insurers must often be negotiated and paid before you can receive the remaining settlement funds.